Obama’s Promised Small Business Support Rhetoric, Sham & PR Stunt
Obama’s promises are simply more rhetoric that lacks substance and is designed to placate media and the American people.
A White House small-business forum is being criticized by the American Small Business League as “a sham” because the group says the Obama administration has failed to honor its promises to small businesses. The forum held Wednesday included Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills; Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner; U.S. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship; and other policymakers, lenders and small-business owners. “This is a sham small business forum intended to mislead the media, and the people of the United States with PR as opposed to action,” ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said in a prepared statement. He also said the topic of diverting money was not discussed. “As we predicted, President Obama’s forum ignored what the SBA inspector general has referred to as the SBA’s No. 1 challenge for five consecutive years,” Chapman said. “We need to quit listening to what he says, and look at what he does. “Despite the commotion and rhetoric the Obama administration has stirred up regarding its small-businesses forum, it looks like it was just another publicity stunt. “I’d love to see someone from the mainstream media ask President Obama on national television why he is continuing to give billions of dollars a month in federal small-business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.” Via http://www.al.com/business/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/business/1258712117267650.xml&coll=1 More commentary from Reuters With his plan outlined, Geithner emphasized the most important step is to get bipartisan support for The Administration’s measures. “It’s very important that members of Congress work with us to create the conditions that make it more likely that small banks are willing to come take advantage of these programs,” said Geithner. “That means they have to have confidence that if they take capital from the government they will not have to face a change in the rules of the game tomorrow. They need to be confident that if they participate in these programs they’re not going to face conditions in the future that will lead them to regret participating.” A comment from a small business owner… Prove It!! That’s what I want, solid proof examples they’re serious about helping small business. I don’t need 2 million…I need $150,000.00. I’m afraid to even talk to a bank as they would probably turn me down. We paid off the mortgage on the business three years ago and just need to restructure some debt, a new roof, new equipment. With ten employees, I’ve put off spending any extra funds to keep all of my employees rather than lay them off. We’re lucky, our sales are steady even though down a very small amount. We’ll see if anything comes of all these promises. Via Reuters http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2009/11/19/small-talk-parsing-geithners-speech-to-small-business/
